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2012 Set Record For Most Expensive Gas In US
An anonymous reader writes "According to data from the American Automobile Association, the average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. was higher in 2012 than in any year before it. Nationwide, gas averaged $3.60/gallon, up from $3.51/gallon in 2011. 'The states with the most expensive annual averages for 2012 included Hawaii ($4.31), Alaska ($4.09), California ($4.03), New York ($3.90) and Connecticut ($3.90). The states with the least-expensive annual averages included South Carolina ($3.35), Missouri ($3.38), Mississippi ($3.39), Tennessee ($3.40) and Oklahoma ($3.41). The highest daily statewide average of the year was $4.67 in Calif. on Oct. 9, while the lowest daily statewide average was $2.91 a gallon in South Carolina on July 3.' Bloomberg reports that fuel consumption is down 3.6% compared to last year, while U.S. oil production reached almost 7 million barrels a day recently, a level that hasn't been reached since 1993. AAA predicts gas prices will be cheaper in 2013."
because I am elite!
Still cheaper than my country (Colombia) We extract oil in our land, and yet we have quite high prices. On average ~4.65 US for low octane fuel (81 ~ 84!!!) and the high octane fuel (which is really a joke by international standards) is ~5.50 US for 87~90 in octane scale
from europeans.........
The consumption figures can't go down because, as is posted constantly on Slashdot, capitalism is a lie and supply and demand are evil conspiracies created by corporations to repress the sheeple.
The U.S. couldn't possibly produce more oil since everybody knows that peak oil happened in the 70's and there is no more oil anywhere. Peak oil is right and Holocaust^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H "Peak Oil" deniers should be executed for the greater good.
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
You don't know how good you have it.
Enjoy the ride.
you have cheap fuel. Really. http://imgur.com/r/MapPorn/YIpi5
Not if the Federal Government has anything to say about it, and they do.
Raising the gasoline tax a lot more, more stringent EPA regulations, OSHA regs to shut down refineries, all manner of things can be used to keep gasoline prices high.
And they will be used, because it's been the stated goal of the Obama Administration and others to keep fossil fuel costs high in order to "persuade" people to switch to alternatives, like mass transit (powered by windmills, no doubt).
By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
In real dollars, i.e. corrected for inflation, it's about the same as in 1979-1980.
It's interesting, without shortages and lines at the pump, how much less threatening it seems. I remember visiting my aunt that Christmas and being quite concerned because our tank wasn't big enough to hold gas for the whole round trip, and in addition to lines, many, many gas stations had short hours--there was no certainty of being able to find a gas station open on Christmas day.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
About the same as a gallon of milk. Not that expensive. And we waste so much of it.
The increase in the price of gas is 2.5%, The average inflation rate for 2012 was 2.1%. So the increase was 15% over inflation but that is understandable. I bet most of the things we but would have a highest price ever this year.
The data has to be wrong, Washington state has terrible gas prices and soon we're going to be getting taxed another 18cents a gallon.
However high gas prices are more a result of a weak dollar than any other reason including the war on fossil fuels. Also see the cost of bacon, gold, copper, etc. Even if demand falls if the oilfield production costs go up and the dollar falls in value on a globally traded commodity it really isn't rocket science.
Gas prices before taxes are fairly consistent throughout most of the developed world. My understanding is that the difference between Europe and the United States has arisen primarily because Europe taxes as a percentage of the price, while the United States taxes on the amount of gasoline. Hence, if the base price doubles, the taxes also double in Europe, but stay the same in the United States. Over time, the difference in price has risen, and should be expected to grow even larger.
Stop it.
There is no sympathy from the rest of the world. Here in Canada "cheap" gas is 4.50USD/Gallon, in Europe its way worse then that, no one wants to hear about it any more. Pick some other non-issue to cry about like how expensive starbucks coffee is or how horrible it is that the millionaire hockey players aren't playing.
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
The Obama administration's Energy Secretary believes Americans should pay European gas prices to encourage people to buy fuel efficient cars and reduce sprawl. They want to social engineer the US to fit their world view.
"In an interview with The Wall Street Journal in late 2008 -- before Obama was elected and at a point when Chu had no ties to Obama -- Chu told the newspaper that he favored raising gasoline taxes gradually over 15 years to coax consumers into buying fuel-efficient cars and discouraging sprawl.
"Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe," Chu said in an interview with the Journal in September 2008. The quote did not appear in print until December, when the Journal ran a story after news emerged that Chu was being tapped as energy secretary."
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/mar/14/newt-gingrich/gingrich-said-energy-secretary-advocated-raising-g/
$4.31 per gallon is 0.86 euro per litre.
i.e. the highest price ever of gas in the worst part of the US is more than two times cheaper than the average price in Europe.
2012 Set Record For Most Expensive Gas In the World
would have been more interesting since gas is still relatively cheap in the US.
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
Try moving to Sweden! You pay $3.51 a gallon we pay on average $7.65 a gallon! All because of your wars!
...in Australia.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Gas prices in the US have been trending up for a long time. Peak was in 2008.
https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=average+prices+for+gallon+of+gas+in+united+states+since+1990
In the short term the price of gas goes up and down. However in the long term the price of gas goes up and up. It is almost like oil is a non-renewable resource or something. Nah that is crazy commy talk.
+1
Happy new year!
"the average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. was higher in 2012 than in any year before it"
Huh? The average price for just about anything in the U.S. was higher in 2012 than in any year before it...
Where do you think the money for your "free" healthcare and other social programs comes from?
Forget any residual "EV range anxiety" you may feel,
& focus on EV's with a -swappable- battery pack, eg,
those from BetterPlace.com.
Take 18 min's to view Shai Agassi's talk at TED.com ...and, maybe, his hour-long detailed version - from
from 2009.
Melbourne - on YouTube or Fora.tv (paywalled, but
you can download it.
Get off petroleum-fuels & enjoy (someday: Thorium
(LFTR) fueled) Electric Cars.
Make intelligent choices -now- (It's -not- too late),
as the Danes have: embrace Zero-Emission EV's.
Win, win, win... :-)
US hasn't switched to petrol or liters? just askin'.
Petrol is € 2,00 per liter in Europe. Not sure how that translates to US dollars.
Given that the price of gas keeps going up, isn't every year a record year for gas prices?
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the price of gas is down by nearly $1.00 a gallon since the election. Duh...which party generally controls gas prices?
+1 We pay $7.90 for 91 octane at the moment (it has gone higher)
Fuck you, it used to be cheap. We want it back that way. The rest of the world agreed to fund social programs and public transport through high fuel taxes. We did not.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
We had prices beyond $8/gallon, you paintywaists ;-)
The UK does both: there is a fixed tax (a "duty"), and a percentage (VAT). The VAT applies to the duty as well as the base price.
The current rate is 58p per litre. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrocarbon_oil_duty
The petrol station opposite my house is selling fuel for £1.39/L, so the cost is (58p fuel + 58p duty) * 1.20 VAT = £1.39.
I think it's the same mechanism in the rest of the EU.
They have a fixed rate (2.19 pounds/per US gallon) but then they add a 20% VAT tax into the mix. So it ends up being pretty substantial.
Are agnostics skeptical of unicorns too?
What do you expect? The socialists are running the country. The cheap oil is pooling up in Canada and North Dakota with no pipelines to transport it. By the way. They have wasted billions of tax dollars on electric cars that don't work. You jackasses voted for it.
an ill wind that blows no good
I originally thought "you're complaining about an average price under $1/L?" but then did some quick maths on how the price really compares to Australian prices.
Average here for a while has been roughly $1.50/L (ignore exchange rates, as AU/US is roughly parity)
Of that, 38c is fuel excise, and 15c national sales tax (GST), thus the price before taxes is 97c/L, which is close to $3.60/gallon - exactly the same as your average.
First off it is to be expected that gas/petrol prices will raise year on year it has done for the past decade and will continue to do so. Was it really such a big surprise to find out that 2012 was the most expensive year for petrol in the USA?
Secondly, this highly USA-centric story doesn't compare to the UK, Europe and other regions of the planet. All stories like this do is make some people want to slap Americans for whining about the cost of petrol when in Europe we are more often than not paying double for petrol as referenced in this map.
How this made it to the front page I don't know, it's common sense and does not require a notice to the people who actually drive cars as well as being incredibly whiny to the rest of the world.
Use it, save $
The costs of production will continue to drive up all oil products as the relatively easily extractable oil is sucked up and (mostly) burned, and increasingly desperate measures are taken to keep the inevitable collapses in production at bay. In the U.S., as in most countries of the world, consumption is still heavily subsidized for every step of the oil production and consumption cycle, but it is getting harder to rob from the future to pay for it; food importers (and market based food production is heavily oil dependent) are in for a much rougher time, and there really is no plan B.
"Lost time is not found again."
Thats cheap - in my area - gas went up to $4.35 on a weekdays - at Costco and there was a long line just to get that regular unlead
Depressing.
Hydrocarbons we've got. Hydrocarbons != net energy. The stuff with thousand to one energy return is long gone. Oil sands have a net energy of about 4:1. just enough to support extraction AND support some additional activity. It's the "AND" that's shrinking as we slide down the net energy cliff. Adding more oil, natural gas or brown coal with lousy net energy doesn't help that, no matter how much we find. Oil is a special case, unfortunately. The world's "just-in-time" supply chain is totally dependent on plentiful, cheap petroleum fuels. Supply chains break in a nonlinear fashion as feedback kicks in. So the recent innumerate popular press happy-talk is all very well and good. If the numbers are real and not political, it may put off the day of reckoning by 40 years, but almost certainly no longer than that.
And please, please, before you reply, please at least try using google and a calculator.
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Because of your "government makes all road" policies, they now collect some large amount of money from the states, split it up and keep some for themselves and give it back with strings attached. One of them was the drinking age. The federal government decided it needed to be 21, but there is nothing the in Constitution giving them the power to do so. Instead they collect money for roads, and hold it until the states raise the drinking age to 21.
So yes, lets not have the government collect money for roads and lets do it locally instead. Your way might work, but you decide how I need to run my life and use that money as a hostage against people like me.
get back to me when you have a clue.
But, since you don't have one - I'll provide it gratis: Here in America the prices are high because of a Bush era change to the laws that let speculators take over the oil futures market. A law quasi repealed under Obama - but to date the Administration has not seen fit to implement the measures that would restore sanity to the market.
We've got a right to complain, because we're being taken to the cleaners by the politicians and the one-percenters. You're the one's with no right to bitch - because your high prices are the result of high taxation. You've done it to *yourselves*.
So piss right the hell off.
I grew up in the midwest, where we really didn't have much of a "mass transit system". Sure, we had a bus system, but it was primarily used by people too poor to own their own car, or people unable to get/keep a driver's license (for anything from medical reasons to alcohol problems). Basically, the bus was NOT a pleasant experience to ride.
I was always being told how great the mass transit was in other cities, and how much I'd like it if I didn't actually have to use a car to get around.
Well, I relocated to the D.C. area for a new job, not that long ago, and so far I'm not at all convinced. The fact is, it's really frickin' expensive to get around up here, and most of that really seems to be artificially manufactured by the government. For example, if I go to areas such as Bethesda, MD or the part of Rockville, MD near Bethesda where the red line metro runs and has multiple stations, the taxes placed on gas make it a good 50 cents per gallon or more higher than in the northern part of Rockville, or out in Germantown or Quince Orchard. Worse yet? Everyplace you go in areas near the metro, you're hit up for expensive parking for your vehicle too! If you work in downtown Bethesda, for example, you're stuck parking in one of the municipal parking garages, or possibly in one owned by one of the office buildings you work in. You can count on that costing you a good $140 per month or more. Need to drop a package off at a FedEx location around there, perhaps? Good luck finding street parking without feeding a meter first. Heck -- say you just want to drive your car to the nearest metro station with parking and take the metro in to work from there? Even that will set you back $5 per day, before paying for the metro fare itself -- and many stations have no or very limited parking, so you might drive to a station only to not get a space!
All of this helps create the argument that you should use and love the govt. provided mass transit, because it costs SO much to use your own car instead.
Well -- I tried to do things their way, and IMO, it's severely limiting. Essentially, you give up a considerable amount of your freedom in the interest of avoiding some of the govt. mandated penalties for using your car. On a shopping trip, for example? Good luck carrying anything back that won't fit in a couple of bags. You'll have to lug it on the metro train with you. And say a friend texts you during the work day and asks if you want to meet up at a restaurant after work? Without your car, you may just have to pass on that if it's not one of the places strategically close enough to you or a metro stop so you can get there!
To their credit, the metro trains DO run on a pretty regular and efficient schedule ... but they sure do have a nasty problem with the escalators to/from the below ground stations breaking down. Again, not fun if you're carrying heavy stuff around with you.
The whole thing, to me, stinks of a forced attempt to get people to conform to an environmentally "green" agenda more than anything else. I live far enough west of the metro D.C. area so even their buses to the closest metro stop only come here a few times in the early AM and again, a few times around the dinner hour after work gets out. If I have to work late, no bus for me! And oh yeah, they don't even come out here at all on weekends.
Highest for the year $4.67 per gallon / 3.78541 litres per gallon = $1.233684065926808 per litre
Seriously, lets call it "somewhat less than one point two five"
The LOWEST price today was $1.28 here in Sydney, highest $1.559
America doesn't know the meaning of "expensive".
And just to be clear, the Sydney numbers mentioned above are:
- not the most expensive fuel has been all year
- not the most expensive fuel has been anywhere else in the country
(eg Melbourne hit $1.60/l for a while in October)
And just for good measure, MY dollar is worth more than yours
them prices I mentioned for Sydney are $DownUndahDollaz$ not $GreenBux$ (ie everything is "in local currency")
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
Wait untill you get higher gas prices and you will start appreceating public transportation.
WTF? How is anyone buying this load of BS? A couple years ago it was more than $1 more expensive than now basically everywhere in the US for the entirety of the year. I would know, I was there when it happened.
I hope you don't really think parking fees are some sort of "forced attempt to get people to conform" - space in a metropolitan area is fucking expensive. The space you put your car has to compete, economically, with the value of putting in an office building that actually generates revenue and pays rent.
Expecting whoever owns that land to just let you put your shit there for free is a bit entitled, and bitching about the cost of municipal parking is just completely ignoring the realities of the situation: if it wasn't for the city stepping in and saying "no, there will not be another high-rent office building here, there will be a parking structure", you wouldn't have anywhere to park because private companies would be busy using that space to make money to the detriment of everyone else. (and don't even start on "we should privatize the municipal parking structures" - you don't want to know what they would have to charge in order to be competitive with office rents).
The "green agenda" is just a side-effect of the fact that cars are super inefficient in densely packed areas where nobody can afford to just let people park their cars for free.
(and you know how you can meet your friends at the restaurant? You can walk. That's probably how they got there, unless they're hiding some sort of secret "green" teleportation device.)
And say a friend texts you during the work day and asks if you want to meet up at a restaurant after work? Without your car, you may just have to pass on that if it's not one of the places strategically close enough to you or a metro stop so you can get there!
Here's a typical case of cause and effect, if you're a place regularly serving alcohol making people unfit to drive maybe it's a good idea to locate somewhere which makes it easy to get to and from without a taxi or a designated driver? If like "normal" people you'd want as customers use public transport, that is. My impression of the US is that using public transport is such a "special case" that you just don't cater to it. One oddity I remember from the grocery store in the US was the bags, they were just horribly flimsy and uncomfortable clearly designed to barely get the goods from the counter to the trunk and from the trunk in your door. They were all but useless for even short to medium walking distances. It's just so institutionalized that you have a car and trying to patch in anything else just becomes an afterthought.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
It has very little to do with a "green agenda". It has to do with the fact that there are six million people in the DC metro area and a HUGE amount of those people live in the suburbs and commute into the city. This certainly won't come as a shock to you if you've ever driven your car inside the beltway during commute time, but you are not the only one who would like to use their own car to commute into the city.
What's the alternative? Seriously, what is a more efficient alternative to moving that many people over that distance on a regular basis? It sure isn't automobiles. Try driving around LA or Houston during rush hour if you think that a city that size designed around automobile travel is more efficient.
The fact is that if you live in a major metro area like DC and want to maintain the suburban Midwestern lifestyle you're used to while regularly visiting the city center for work and play, you're going to have to pay for it in time and money. There's just no way around it. I mean, how far are you commuting? West of Fairfax into DC? That's a pretty damn long commute. You can't really complain that the service is poor when you live that far away.
Here in the Netherlands we are paying close to 2 Euro per litre for premium (95). You can convert yourself: 1 US gallon = 3.78541178 litre and 1.00 EUR = 1.327498 USD
So don't complain about high gas prices in the States please...
Given a price of $1.17 per liter, and given 3.78541 liters per gallon, I paid around $4.42 per gallon.
I like how the US sticks to imperial, then changes the size of the gallon to smaller so you think you aren't paying as much. At least in Canada we know we are paying through the nose. We export to the US so does that mean that Canadian citizens are supporting the US economy? We are actually paying for you to drive?
I sometimes just don't get it.
Yes (sort of). The difference from the US is mainly that we (at least in Sweden) automatically increase the fixed tax every year to account for inflation. (In Sweden the taxed is based on the average price for the month of October, and right now the tax is (fuel + 5.65 SEK/litre) * 1.25 VAT. This means on average it is a percentage, or at least follows the base price of petrol.
Though... Even if we subtract taxes from our prices, we still pay more than the US average cost of fuel (including their tax).
I feel freer when I’m not driving the car. I have to drive and park the stupid thing, and driving safely restricts my activities and makes me less fit.
I’m old enough to remember 16K of memory being described as “whopping”
Thing is, metro systems actually work very well. Come to any major European city (Paris, London or Barcelona immediately spring to mind) and there are so many stations that there's basically no such thing as NOT strategically close to a stop.
You do understand that the neighborhoods of metro stations are heavily populated, and the cost and sometimes lack of parking space is just because of the desire to reserve these areas for living instead of parking? It's not because of some green government plot.
Also, if you think the scanty parking space is overpriced, please consider the value of the parking lot. You'll soon figure out that offering cheap parking space near metro stations is an equation that can't work, at least not in a free market
If you find it hard to lug around a shopping bag in the metro, I on the other hand find it intolerably mentally exhausting to lug around a 1200 kg piece of metal in the crowded streets of the city of Helsinki.
Time for the US to invade Iran and fuel the Arab Spring in Saudi Arabia.
The UK is supposed to increase the fixed amount (the duty) every year, but in the last few years the government has "put off" the increase. Driving in the UK is cheaper (accounting for inflation) than it's been for a long while.
Meanwhile, rail fares went up 4.2% today, for the Nth time in a row, and are 50-95% higher than they were 10 years ago in many cases: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20881684
The average salary in my country is 900 USD and we pay for diesel or gasoline depending on the tank station from 7 to 8 USD for a gallon!
I pay about 2.3 times that in the Netherlands (about € 1.65 a litre), the difference being almost exclusively due to taxes, on top of a motor vehicle tax of about € 600 a year and more than € 6000 of motor vehicle sales tax in addition to the regular VAT of 19% levied on any product when the car was new. The previous owner and I already spent far more on taxes than the manufacturer ever received for it.
London
Clearly you've never been to London. Or saaaaarfariver.
In the south it's nothing but mud tracks, rude huts and roving bands of visigoths, all because of the lack of tube. At least so people from the north tell me. I think they're allergic to regular trains.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Burn it, all.
That's a very good point - you also have to beware of bandits and wolves once you head south of the river.
you also have to beware of bandits
Like the Peckham Boys, for instance.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
I think that near 2007~2008 they seized ExxonMobil assets and kicked them out, making their refineries state-controlled, which is really awful.
Why is that so bad? Far better to take the profit for the country than simply give it to a foreign company.
Where does this attitude come from? I understand that you are envious or even resentful of those that have more than you, but how does that justify your position. What you are advocating is theft. They built something and have nice stuff, therefore they deserve to have it taken from them?
They were not robbing the country. They were paying an agreed upon rate for the resource, then Chavez decided it wasn't enough and that he was taking it all for "the people". He didn't simply refuse to sell the resource to them anymore, he took the resource, took their land, took their buildings, took their vehicles, took their equipment, everything.
Try putting yourself in their place. I suspect that you may own a car. How would you feel if someone less fortunate took it from you and said that you deserved to have it stolen because you had too much stuff/wealth? This actually happens every day, but we call those people criminals because it is theft and it is a criminal act.
This naive and juvenile attitude that seems to be increasingly prevalent among the masses has got to stop. A society cannot continue to function with this attitude. Look at Cuba and Venezuela as excellent examples of that fact.
I can't speak for Europe in general, but you are mostly incorrect for the UK.
Fuel duty is calculated on a quantity basis, which is most of the tax. VAT is calculated on a price basis, but that is minor compared to the duty.
We should evolve past money and share our resources equally - and ration where needed.
I grew up in the midwest, where we really didn't have much of a "mass transit system".
Oh?
Do me a favor and stop by Chicago sometime. Compare it to LA while you're at it.
What else do you think the "Give us tax breaks or we'll close up shop?" are?
The vehicle is much heavier and longer wheelbase increases the torque required to control for fishtail on a 4wd.
Additionally people who don't know how the hell to drive a 4wd think that 4wd == sticks to the road and therefore gun it far too hard for the conditions.
Farmers usually use knackerd ford cortinas here in the UK. they're cheap, easy to fix and if it gets stuck, pop home and get the TRACTOR out to pull it out. the 4wd is used either for posing or for gamekeepers.
http://www.gaspricewatch.com/web_us_average_gas_price_chart.php?period=15year
http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation_Rate/Gasoline_Inflation.asp
http://www.consumerenergyreport.com/2012/02/27/how-high-have-gas-prices-risen-over-the-years/
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"And please, please, before you reply, please at least try using google and a calculator."
you first.
I have been hearing that since 1970's. Still not in sight.
Just in time is bad in general for a lot of industries that have moved to it.
At least the drive to make everything Just in time has diminished in the last 12 years or so.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Petrol(a.k.a. Gasoline) costs 5.3$ per gallon. You guys have it cheap.
I'm still paying $1.96 a gallon for propane. Modern conversions (any gasoline vehicle can be converted) will give your engine a longer life, too, and if you're crazy, you can try to extend oil changes. Did I mention I live in a medium sized city and have a choice of 6 stations? And that I've done 10+ hour trips on propane with just one fillup at the start, and one in the middle?
Go ahead, don't mod this up, perhaps it's best people *don't* know they have a choice, because it means that propane will remain unlinked from gas prices and instead follow heating prices--which means this season is actually when prices peak for me. They are cheapest in the summer, right when I want to drive around the most! Woohoo!
Although, at the same time, sucks to keep this post at 0 considering that propane burns cleaner than gasoline. :(
I've visited DC twice for a week or so each time and was very impressed at the subway system there, especially at the distance you could go in it. If I lived there, I would use it regularly. I didn't even use the buses, but if I did I imagine that would be great too.
My only two disappointments were that it doesn't run 24/7 (closed around midnight... oh well, I can understand) and that at least half the escalators are perpetually broken.
I'm comparing this to the subway in Montreal (also nice, quiet too with the rubber wheels) and Toronto (horrendous, but not all that unsurprising considering the idiots staffing the TTC).
I live in a city with 1/10th the population of Toronto Centre, and have a choice of 20 minutes driving or 2 hours bus. Obviously, I choose driving.
When I visited DC, I stayed in Arlington (hey, gotta save $$$). I took a cab between two hotels in Arlington, and that took 20 minutes. Taking the subway, however, got me from Arlington to L'Enfant in about 30 minutes. In DC, I'd definitely choose the subway. If I didn't plan on making frequent trips outside the city, should I end up living in DC, I think I'd even dump the car.
And I'm not doing it because of the environment or any other feel good bullshit, or even to save money. The subway in DC was honestly the fastest way to go and worth the rather low fare fee (check out the cost of the subway in Toronto and compare just *how far* you can go on the DC subway vs. theirs, you are getting a STEAL of a deal).
And if you don't like the weekend traffic, why the hell did you choose to live in a Tourist Trap?! If you did it for a job, well, you gotta weigh the pros with the cons and make your choice from there!
Because the Metro buses don't go where I want to go in a timely manner, I can drive to work (Alexandria -> Bailey's Crossroad) in about 15 minutes, whereas taking the bus means approximately 1 hour. 20 minutes from the nearest stop to the Pentagon, wait 20 minutes for the next bus on the other line, then 20 minutes out to Falls Church. Soooo much more convenient.
By the taping of my glasses, something geeky this way passes
The UK is supposed to increase the fixed amount (the duty) every year, but in the last few years the government has "put off" the increase. Driving in the UK is cheaper (accounting for inflation) than it's been for a long while.
You're right that they haven't raised the duty in the last couple of budgets. But you appear to be wrong about that meaning inflation adjusted fuel is cheaper than it's been for a long while. On the contrary, it's quite a bit more expensive.
http://www.speedlimit.org.uk/petrolprices.html
My point is not to particularly focus in on the parking fees, but more that they form PART of the whole agenda to discourage people from driving their own vehicles.
The fact remains that the government actually makes a profit off of every single person driving a passenger car or truck around in their community, while they take a HUGE loss trying to keep public transportation going.
If the logistical problem they're trying to solve is one of too much traffic for the roads and infrastructure in the area, then they would be better served putting the money into an improved road system and ways for people to park their vehicles less expensively!
When I drive around places like Silver Spring or Rockville, I encounter all sorts of roads which almost seem designed to maximize traffic bottlenecks! You've got such things as 2 lane roads going north-bound with a big median separating them from south-bound 2 lane roads beside them, and many establishments on both sides of said roads. Rather than offering a number of breaks in the median to allow accessing one side from the other, you're forced to drive for miles until the roads both terminate in a connecting loop! Other places have very confusing intersections that are "one way" only between certain times of day or days of the week. That's just the sort of thing that will increase the number of accidents!
And yes, while I never said the metro was a "bad value" for the fare you pay, it stinks of government bureaucracy as badly as most government projects .... Take a look at the fiasco getting it extended out to Dulles Airport, for example! That project has been an utter joke, including such nonsense as spending money MULTIPLE times to "research" if it was better to run it under or above ground near the airport, and then claiming govt. lost the original plans showing where a bunch of reinforced concrete pillars were buried in the ground that they needed to build on top of. So parts of the metro had to be shut down while surveyors ran around trying to re-locate all of them again! And I'm sorry, but it should really be a "no brainer" that if there's one GOOD place for the metro line to run, it would be to the largest airport in the D.C. area!
The UK is supposed to increase the fixed amount (the duty) every year, but in the last few years the government has "put off" the increase. Driving in the UK is cheaper (accounting for inflation) than it's been for a long while.
You're right that they haven't raised the duty in the last couple of budgets. But you appear to be wrong about that meaning inflation adjusted fuel is cheaper than it's been for a long while. On the contrary, it's quite a bit more expensive.
http://www.speedlimit.org.uk/petrolprices.html
I probably got that from here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/9493041/War-on-motorist-a-myth-says-left-of-centre-think-tank.html but can't quickly find the original report. http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/war-motorists-myth has more quoted numbers from it.
I wrote (and remember reading) that driving was cheaper, not fuel alone. Accounting for better cars (using less fuel, needing less maintenance) might be what makes that true.
In the Netherlands it's even more fun: both the "duty" and the VAT are a percentage, and the VAT also applies to the duty. This stacking of percentages, and the percentage being relativity large, causes extreme results for just small fluctuations of the base price.
I spent $2000 on a commuter bike and its accessories (high-end tires and snow tires, a lock, rack, waterproof pannier and grocery pannier, fenders, generator hub + lights, upgraded drivetrain components) 2 years ago.
Sounds like a lot, right? If the bike were stolen tomorrow, it would have worked out to $83/month. Because I bought a good bike with a low-maintenance drivetrain (fully enclosed chaincases are ideal, coupled with internal-gear hubs), operational costs are low, so it's getting cheaper every day.
Every few months I need a tube ($5ish) if it's not patchable. About every 6 months I need a set of brake pads, which are about $20. I think in a year or two I'll probably need a new set of tires which will be $140 total if I buy the really fancy ones again. Once in a blue moon I need to bring it to the shop (for example, I once accidentally broke a spoke), which is usually well under $50.
I use the transit pass when the weather is miserable (I hate cold rain, and sub-25-degree-F air temps); otherwise, it's the bike.
The best fuel is the kind you eat. Love to eat? Buy and use a bike for transport (and don't cheap out. And DON'T BUY A MOUNTAIN BIKE FOR RIDING IN THE CITY!)
Please help metamoderate.
...who are saying that our $4/gal is nothing compared to what they pay, it's true. But you astronomical gas taxes (which is where the disparity is) are why you have mass transit systems that are actually usable. In this country, your options for work are cut severely from the already limited pool if you don't own a vehicle. And fuel efficient ones are even more expensive, since they tend to be newer, and often less reliable.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it! --Longbottle
The cheapest gas in Finland is 7.56 USD, and it varies up to 8.51 USD per gallon (95 octane with 10 per cent ethanol). I find it amazing that Americans complain so much about the price of gas there. I pay double and I don't complain. If I have to drive, I have to fill up. It's not like I can fuel the car with orange juice. Most of the price is taxes, though. I think it is fair to tax polluting.
It sounds like you guys are lagging Arizona's $4 plus dollar per gallon in 2008. If you drove through Arizona in 2008, then you would of met the spiking price that was way above $4. How much was Oil per Barrel in 2008 compared to 2012?
I was always being told how great the mass transit was in other cities, and how much I'd like it if I didn't actually have to use a car to get around. Well, I relocated to the D.C. area for a new job, not that long ago, and so far I'm not at all convinced...
And then spend a really long time bitching about how much it sucks to use a car in the city. That's.... exactly what you were told.
But somehow it's the government's fault that parking garage are expensive? Dude, it's space. You're in a city. Surrounded by people. They want their cars/housing/businesses to occupy the same space that you do. It's not really a scarce resource out here in Iowa. Yeah, even downtown Davenport. You're not fighting the government, you're fighting a fundamental law of economy. You can't blame the evil government unless they own all the parking garages. Unless you're one of those hippy socialists that think the government should provide for all your parking needs free of charge.
As for the freedom thing? Yeah. You're absolutely right. Because mass transit IS for poor(er) people. It's just the top 100 people per square mile can reasonably afford a car (and/or limo service), and in a big city, that's probably not you.
no reason to goto google, your energy return premises are exaggerated and false.
Of course that is a feature, not a bug.
It is also a cultural and mental shift that you are probably having trouble adjusting to. (Or the mass trans there could suck, I've never been there).
But here in Portland OR, city dwellers do a few things to get around. 1) Pick places near transit lines to shop, eat, drink, etc.. and there are lots of options as more and more places have been built around transit lines over time. 2). Take a bike on the mass trans if further travel is required 3) don't feel walking 20 blocks is a big deal, 4) rent a car2go for any out of the way city trips. https://www.car2go.com/en/portland/
I visited New York and the mass trans there was also very good. I was able to explore every spot on Manhattan on foot using the subways, and this was from staying at a friends house across the water from the island.
The people that do it all the time also have all sorts of phone apps and other helpful things that makes getting around using mass trans way more convenient. Like apps telling you in real time where the subway or train is, how long until it arrives, highlighting its route, allowing you to search for where you want to go and the app laying out exactly what bus to take, which line to transfer on, etc..
The car2go concept is fairly new (at least here in Portland), but it's great. People leave the cars all over town. So you pull out your phone, look at the map for the nearest vacant car, walk over, swipe your car2go card, drive to wherever, leave the car either telling it you are done, or you want it reserved, account is automatically charged. The city allows for free parking because they like the concept, etc..